Students win places at top private schools

STUDENTS at a state school in one of the most deprived areas of the country who achieved target grades in their GCSEs are to take up places at top fee-paying schools – including Mount Kelly school in Tavistock.

In total 14 students from The Cumberland School in Plaistow, East London, will take up paid scholarships to some of the country’s best private schools.

This includes two students attending Francis Holland in Regents Park where alumni include Sienna Miller, Jemima Khan and Cara Delevingne.

Mount Kelly in Devon and Wellington College in Berkshire are taking four students each, while others will be attending University College School, Hampstead, and Forest School in east London.

Entrepreneur Nick Butcher agreed to part fund a £35,000 a year place at Kingswood School in Bath for a Cumberland student after reading about the school’s scholarship programme in the press.

Felipe Bento, 16, from Canning Town, was at one point on the verge of being expelled, but has turned his life around and is going to Mount Kelly in Devon to study physics, politics, psychology and history. He said: “It is kind of a surreal feeling because this time next month I will be living in Devon. It is a very different place to Newham so it is going to be a big challenge.

“There are so many students in this school that, like me, have been saved from going down the wrong path by going to a very good school.”

Minnat Mohammed, 16, from Plaistow, will be going to University College School and taking four A Levels. Both of her parents left Sudan to escape civil war in the 2000s.

She said: “I will be going to this really exclusive private school and things will be very different. I am ecstatic and relieved that I have got the grades and won my place. I can now focus on the next chapter in my life and reaching for the stars.”

Caitlyn Osei, 16, from Canning Town, said: “I was the last one to get a place. I got in because lots of private schools heard about the scholarship programme in the newspapers and offered more places. I think I was number 14 but I am not worried at all because I have my chance now and I am going to do everything I can to take it.”

Anishia Watts, 16, from Romford, will have part of her £35,000 a year fees at Kingswood School in Bath paid for by rich benefactor Nick Butcher.

She said: “I am so moved and so grateful for his amazing generosity that it hard to put into words.”

Each student had to go through a rigorous selection process, which included entrance exams and interviews.

The Cumberland School is led by the Community Schools Trust which oversees the Prestigious Colleges programme.

Each student is assigned a leadership team member to be their mentor who helps with applications, entrance exams and interviews. The school has also hired an etiquette coach to teach students on how to dress, communicate and conduct themselves during interviews. Last year, seven students from the school won places at top private schools, including Eton College.

Headteacher Omar Deria said: “This is a momentous moment in their lives. We are so glad to have played a part in these life changing opportunities.”